"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping. To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers — so many caring people in this world." - Fred Rogers
A funny thing happened this evening when I went downtown to hand out the care packages. I argued with myself back and forth before I decided to go, thinking "it will be less safe at night" and "there will be less homeless outside as many will have bunked down to sleep either someplace hidden or in a public shelter."
But with an especially cold, rainy week ahead, they needed the supplies ASAP. Especially the stuff related to keeping warm and dry. I asked myself "Am I really serious about this?" I have the luxury of living indoors and eating whenever I please. Could I be so lazy as to further delay this project for my own comfort?
The answer was "No I won't" in the end, so I headed out to the usual parking structure where I could leave my car charging while I hoofed it around the metro area in search of people without shelter. What I found almost immediately, by serendipitous happenstance, were people already helping.
That possibility never entered my mind. I suppose my early life experiences with other people gave me an ingrained dismal, pessimistic view of human nature, but I am growing out of it. I have discovered things are more often better than expected, not worse.
Humans, and this world, are neither the bleak dumpster fire nor the colorful, bright tropical cruise they can appear when distorted by emotional lows and highs. The truth is somewhere in the middle.
If you feel the drive to help in your heart, it is all but assured you are surrounded by countless others who harbor the same drive in silence. Perhaps they don't act on it only because they mistakenly think they are alone in that feeling, and feel it would be pointless to act alone.
You are not alone in that feeling! Do not give in to the weight of daily struggle which inclines us to casually accept the cold, cruel pattern of this world. Get up! Shout and shake your fist, riot and rebel against that weight! Explode and burn with rage against the crass, systemic indifference of fast paced modern society to those who have fallen down and slipped through the cracks.
If you're like me and have lost trust in major institutions like religions, AA, Salvation Army and so on to spend the money you give them wisely, then don't entrust the task to someone else. Undertake it on your own. Odds seem better than even now that you'll run into others who did the same.
This is how helping happens at the grass roots level. When it's small like this and made up of volunteers without anybody in a business suit sitting in an office making decisions about who to help and how much, insulated and removed from the people it's their job to help, it remains pure. There is no corruption at this stage and little opportunity for it to creep in, one of many good arguments for the decentralization of any such effort.
Anyways I obtained permission from the event organizers to take these photos, and whenever one of the homeless individuals requested to not be in the shot I took care not to get them in it. They gave me permission also to hand out the care packages as I saw fit.
I chose mainly based on their answer to the question "Are you without shelter?" as the package is designed mainly to mitigate the worst effects of exposure to the elements, and about half of it isn't much use to somebody living out of a car/van, in a public shelter, etc.
I did however preferentially give to the elderly over the young, and to women over men only because the last time I handed out the Care Package 2.0s, 8 went to men and only 2 went to women. For the simple reason that I ran into more homeless men than women. Now the ratio is less lopsided.
The biggest win of this outing was to discover Free Hot Soup, wonderful warm hearted citizen troopers acting on that invisible fire in their heart which drives them to help. To extend warmth and nourishment when they see suffering out in the world, the bridge too many will not cross because they wrongly imagine they would do so alone, and could not hope to make any difference.
Based on what I've read they appear experienced and well organized, though not so much as to remove themselves from the midst of the people they seek to help. It's a really phenomenal effort by all appearances and I will be studying my options for future participation in/collaboration with these fine people.
Until I figure out how that desire fits into my Steemit schedule, I'll continue assembling bit by bit the supplies for Care Package 4.0, which this time will include a first aid kit as well as other additions I've not yet decided upon.
Stay Cozy!